The use of touch-sensitive surfaces as input devices for computers and other electronic computing devices has increased significantly in recent years. Exemplary touch-sensitive surfaces include touchpads and touch-screen displays. Such surfaces are widely used to perform display operations on a user interface of a display.
Exemplary display operations include adjusting the position of one or more user interface objects, activating buttons or opening files/applications represented by user interface objects, as well as changing the view of one or more portions of a user interface. Exemplary user interface objects include files, folders, calendar entries, icons, and control elements such as buttons and other graphics. A user will, in some circumstances, need to perform display operations involving user interface objects in a file management program (e.g., Finder from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a calendaring program (e.g., iCal from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), an image management application (e.g., Aperture, iPhoto, or Photos from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a digital content (e.g., videos and music) management application (e.g., iTunes from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a drawing application, a presentation application (e.g., Keynote from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), a word processing application (e.g., Pages from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.), or a spreadsheet application (e.g., Numbers from Apple Inc. of Cupertino, Calif.).
But existing methods for performing these display operations are cumbersome and inefficient, and can take multiple steps. For example, if a user wishes to change a view while dragging one or more user interface objects, the user needs to release the one or more user interface objects and change a view of a portion of a user interface, and then pick up the one or more user interface objects again to move the one or more user interface objects to the changed view. This sequence of steps is complex and takes additional time.